Who he is
Alexandre Kech is a Belgian executive with more than twenty-five years of career straddling traditional finance, market standards and digital assets. Starting in securities custody at BNY Mellon, he built much of his path at SWIFT, where he rose to lead the Securities & FX area for Asia-Pacific and took part in the consortium's first blockchain proofs of concept. In 2018 he co-founded Onchain Custodian in Singapore, among the first institutional custody services for digital assets, before moving to Citi Ventures and then to SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) as Head of Digital Securities. Since June 2024 he has led GLEIF, where he works on the adoption of the LEI and the vLEI, its verifiable digital version — the bridge between corporate identity and on-chain finance.
Current role
CEO of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) since 26 June 2024, after a period as CEO-elect beginning on 1 May 2024; he is the successor of Stephan Wolf, who had led the foundation since its creation in 2014. His mandate focuses on the global adoption of the LEI and the vLEI (verifiable LEI), including in a blockchain and tokenised asset context. (Verified: September 2026)
Career path
- BNY Mellon (securities custody), then a long career at SWIFT across market standards and securities, up to Head of Securities & FX APAC.
- Co-founder and CEO of Onchain Custodian (Singapore, 2018), institutional custody of digital assets; subsequently Citi Ventures.
- Head of Digital Securities at SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) until 2024, then CEO of GLEIF.
Recent developments and controversies
There are no controversies against him. The significant development is his appointment at GLEIF (June 2024): since then he has been the foundation's public voice on corporate digital identity, speaking frequently on the use of the vLEI in traditional and on-chain finance. (Verified: September 2026)
FAQ
Is Kech still CEO of Onchain Custodian? No: that experience ended years ago. After Onchain Custodian he moved to Citi Ventures and SIX Digital Exchange; since June 2024 he has been CEO of GLEIF.
What is GLEIF? The non-profit foundation, established at the behest of the Financial Stability Board, that runs the global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) system: unique codes that identify legal entities in financial transactions worldwide.
See also
Verified sources
- https://www.gleif.org/en/newsroom/press-releases/alexandre-kech-to-become-new-ceo-of-globa
- https://www.gleif.org/en/about/management
- https://www.gtreview.com/news/on-the-move/alexandre-kech-takes-helm-as-gleif-chief-executi
